LACED WISDOM: Before we talk about more spending cuts, could we discuss legalizing marijuana?

SIDEBAR

Every day, in every Canadian city, town and village, individuals are purchasing a product without paying the appropriate sales tax.

In fact, every year, a significant portion of Canadian land is used to grow this product. Owners of this land and product employ a large workforce to cultivate and harvest this valuable crop. These workers are paid large sums of money without any income tax deductions.

This product is packaged and sold; repackaged and resold; often repackaged and again resold, to suppliers across the country, without government receiving any portion of the proceeds or the appropriate deductions from the pay cheques of the various suppliers.

All of this is down without a cent spent on a marketing campaign and with millions (or even billions) of dollars invested in preventing the sale of this product down the entire line.

The idea of perhaps filling government coffers wit

Marijuana is, and has been for decades, a booming Canadian industry.

And, thankfully, more Canadians are waking up to the fact that this country would be better served if we allowed this industry to become a legal and governed aspect of our economic life.

According to a new poll by Forum Research, 65 per cent of Canadians support the legalization and taxation of marijuana.

Those who want tougher sentences for the nefarious pot users and dealers: 17 per cent. That, my friends, is the Conservative Party base.

Which is why, despite the ample evidence showing legalization makes sense and Canadians overwhelmingly support it, we shouldn't expect the federal government to jump on the legalization bandwagon. Instead, they will continue to double down on the failed enforcement policies of the past.

It seems this government feels the only reason the war on drugs has failed is because, well, we haven't spent enough taxpayer money on it.

So, while Canadians would prefer legalization, the government has opted to increase penalties and impose mandatory jail sentences for growing six or more plants of marijuana.

It's a silly and simplistic policy, one we have engaged in for decades and which has proven to provide nothing in the way of a significant drop in marijuana use. All it has done is waste tax dollars and fill our jails.

Yet most of us are increasingly waking up to the fact that the supposed dangers of marijuana are actually less so than other, legal drugs of choice - alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, although I'm sure the preachers of morality never indulge in such things.

And, with calls for spending cuts to all areas of popular social programs, the idea of perhaps filling government coffers with new taxes imposed on the cultivation and sale of marijuana seems pretty darn good.

Some day, the politicians may wake up too. Just don't expect that day to be any time soon.